The Albumblatt Is Prettier Than It Sounds

Our piano teacher hosted her annual student recital yesterday.

Todd played a couple minuets by J. S. Bach . . .

. . . and Anna performed a beautiful song with an ugly name:

"Albumblatt Opus 66."

Apparently, "albumblatt" is German for "album leaf,"

and it means a short, instrumental composition.

That's all well and good, but to our un-German ears,

the word sounds like someone gagging.

It felt a little strange to not see Daniel's name on the program this year.

Daniel decided to stop taking formal piano lessons a few months ago,

but he still plays the piano almost daily--

a mix of old favorites, new pieces he's polishing, and his own compositions.

He says he may start lessons again someday,

but for now I'm glad he enjoys the piano so much

that he keeps honing his skills and learning new songs.

A Little Help from My Friend

A while back, I purchased some woodworking plans on Etsy . . .

. . . to build a planter box . . .

. . . that holds five-gallon buckets.

Woo-hoo! Bucket garden upgrade!

My carpentry skills are somewhat limited,

but my friend Jean loves to help with carpentry projects and yard work,

so she happily volunteered to give me a hand.

She's also helping me tear out the hydrangeas out front,

so I can replace them with something that doesn't look like

a sad bunch of bare sticks for most of the year.

Thank you, Jean!!!